Coffeetime Anytime
We’re introducing a new format for the wonderful My Coffee-Cup Meditations. Here’s an introduction to the AUTUMN volume–Coffeetime in Autumn: Bible-Based Meditations for Each Day of the Season.
Roger Ellsworth writes these words in the introduction:
Introduction: All About this Series
From God’s Word, the Bible…
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
John 10:1-6
What you have here is the fourth part of what was produced as a big book—twelve books all in one, in fact. The idea of connecting enjoying coffee and reading the Bible devotionally happened early in 2017 when I wrote the first book in what became a series of My Coffee-Cup Meditations.
Tender shepherds take the best care of their sheep. They lead them to where there is good, nutritious grass, a supply of fresh water, shade from fierce heat, and he is sure to defend them from animals that would prey on them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. He tends His sheep, believers He has redeemed by His work on the cross. And He feeds them from the rich treasures of His Word, the Bible. God’s Word is nourishing food when it is regularly imbibed through reading, reflection, and study. Christians must read the Bible, and so a daily devotional book can significantly help in this regard.
Early mornings are very predictable for lots and lots of Christians. Roll out of bed, turn on the coffee pot, pour a cup, settle into a favorite chair and enjoy what is called “the daily devotional.” This usually consists of reading a passage from the Bible and a selection from a devotional book. It concludes with prayer.
Christians who follow this pattern can go through a good bit of devotional material as the years go by. So they are always looking for new material—something to go along with their Bible and their coffee.
Hoping that I could be helpful in supplying the need for more devotional material, I gathered up some articles I had written and put them in a book—A Dog and a Clock. The idea was to supply brothers and sisters in Christ with enough devotions to carry them through one month. That quickly led to another book—The Thumbs Up Man—to carry “devotion-doers” through another month and then another.
You can guess what happened after three or four books came out. There are twelve months in the year. So why not provide enough books to cover a year? So off we went and out the books came until there were finally twelve books, each with thirty-one readings! Since these books were designed to go with the Bible and a good cup of coffee, it seemed right to call them My Coffee-Cup Meditations. Thanks to my good friends Jim and Sue Holmes for that suggestion! And thanks to my wife, Sylvia, and my sons, Tim and Martyn, for contributing some chapters along the way.
Then came the idea of producing the books together, so that there would be enough readings for a whole year, and with some left over, as not all months have thirty-one days. So the result is that we combined all twelve of the books into one big one: The Big Book of Coffee Cup Meditations! That way, people would be able to read from whichever month they wished to at any time in the year—and never have too few days in the month, because there would always be thirty-one readings in each month!
As we thought and prayed about how to present these books in yet another format, the idea of Bible readings for each of the seasons of the year came to mind: Coffeetime in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. And so it is that you are holding the fourth of the set of four books in your hand!
One of my main concerns in writing these books was to cause the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to shine. It’s wrong to think that the gospel is for unbelievers only. Believers need the gospel! We need to be reminded again and again of the greatness of what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The more we ponder the gospel and the more deeply we ponder it, the more we will find our hearts flooded with gratitude, and the more willing we will be to faithfully serve Him.
My Coffee-Cup Meditations are published for you with the hope that you will read the devotions, enjoy them, and, most of all, find that you are inspired to consider the greatness of God, the relevance of the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and coming-again of Jesus, and are better equipped for life in this world and well prepared for the world to come.
And don’t forget to pour that cup of coffee!
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